When you make music, to a greater or lesser extent, you change the world. Whether your creation acts as a medium to express an idea, or whether it’s to be appreciated in and of itself, it introduces something genuinely novel, never to be undone.

But it’s not a one-way relationship, music itself is also affected by culture, nature, or what have you. From time to time, out of some concoction of inspirations, an artist will do the unforeseeable and blend genres to create a whole new sound.

This year I was blessed to master The Groove, an EP by Monster Florence. Monster Florence combines hip-hop, punk, and UK grime that, as they amusingly put it, is “undeniably British.” The sound is clearly as compelling as it is unique, because the EP climbed to number five in Hip-Hop on iTunes and made waves with other large artists (Gold Panda and Foreign Beggars).

The band is now working on their full-length debut Foul, which you should be excited to check out in 2017.